Hi Everyone,

I'm getting ready to machine quilt a quilt for my dear hubby that I've titled "Happy Trails" as it has a Roy Rogers theme and fabric to it. My DH designed this boot block to his liking, but now I'm stumped as to how I might machine quilt around it. Of course, I want his handiwork to shine, and I cannot FMQ yet, so I am a bit limited on quilting choices. Any thoughts would surely be appreciated. Thanks so much.

How about just big loops going different ways, kind of like rope? Do you understand what I mean?

My friend collects cowboy boots. Some of them have incredible stitching designs. If you do a Google Image search for "fancy cowboy boots" there will be plenty of photos of examples.

I agree - if it's hand appliqued, I would use a contrasting thread and do some fancy stitching like you find on boots. If it's fused, I would just stipple around it.

No suggestion about quilting- but want you to know that it is a great boot!

Hi Harmony,

Yes, I do understand, thanks. Could something like that be accomplished with a walking foot, tho?

Gosh thanks! I would've never thought of that idea. I'll go looking and see what I can see.

Hi Cathe,

It is fused, then machine appliqued. I do believe stippling is out of the question tho, since I do not know how to free motion quilt and I do have a bit of a time line in order to enter it in our community quilt show this summer. Thanks so much.

Hi beachlady,

Well thank you very much! I'll let DH know you said that. He didn't care for the original boot pattern, as he wanted something more like his own real boot. He made the templates for it, picked out the fabs, I did the construction and sewing of it. It was truly a team effort! :D

AWESOME Boot
great team work

Sorry, hun, just a hand quilter here.

I thought rope loops too but if you dont' free motion , you could just do echo quilting around the boot. several times. that should work well and make the "boot" more pronounced.

I like to idea of echo quilting around it. Make that beautiful joint effort stand out. Great quilt.

I was in a site the other day, and saw the outline of a boot that would be adorable. I think the last name was Agee.

Thanks! I suppose I should post the whole quilt top, too. Then, you'd really see the full RR effect. LOL

No suggestions, but a great quilt for sure!! I like the lasso suggestion.

Thanks! :D Sure wish I could FMQ. That would solve a lot of problems.

Love the whole quilt too. You should do well in the show.

since you can't free motion are you able to use your machine "fancy" stitches with your walking foot?

i'm thinking you might have some decorative stitches that might work well with the boot.

Nice quilt!!

I've got 14 specialty stitches plus 14 utility stitches on my Bernina 1090. I'm pretty sure I can use my walking foot with them. Do you have any specific stitches in mind, Klue? I've been meaning to ask about color of thread, too. What might you suggest? Cream? Variegated? Monofilament? Something else? Thanks.

Thanks! I sure hope so. :-)

take a pic of the stitch card and post it so we can all see what we can choose from.

i know you want to enter this into a show so i would use a fancy type thread even though its not the best for day to day use.

i'm thinking red for directly on the boot (thats if you plan on quilting right on the boot) you could actually do the boot design by hand and mimic the fancy stitching on cowboy boots.

i'd use something to blend in on the background of the blocks and then for the brown sashing i used a variegated thread maybe red, white, blue.

Okay Klue, here's the two stitch cards you asked for. Great idea, by the way.

Before I even had a chance to read this late yesterday, I had stopped off at the LQS and bought a spool of Superior variegate - red, white and blue! How funny is that? Just what you had suggested! :wink: You're the greatest, thanks so much!

its so great that you picked up that thread - we have the same tastes and ideas.

i like the look of stitches 23, 26, and 28.

you should make some samples - take some scrap fabric and some thread thats the same weight you'll be using but you don't mind wasting on samples.

play with the stitch length and width you should mark a couple straight lines down the scrap fabric and keep the straight line down the center of the of the foot.

you want to look at how far the stitches swing from the center line - this way you'll know how to lay them down on the quilt when the time is ready.

mark each test run with the stitch number, length, and width that way a few days from now you'll be able to refer back to the exact data that looks best.

of course add whatever other stitches you like the look of to the sample runs - you'd be surprised i've done this and the stitches i like best on my machine were all stitches i thought i wouldn't like.

the next thing we need to discuss is what did you do to applique the boots? is it fusible web and if so what brand.

some fusible web just doesn't look good quilted - you end up with a lot of needle holes that don't close up.

you can make a sample and test it out to see if your fusible web will close up after the needle penetrates it.

also can you do an echo stitch? i'm thinking you might be able to do some echo stitching around the boot. you can still leave the feed dogs up and just do a bunch of pivot around of the quilt.

ok - so thats your homework for the weekend. when is the due date for show submission - if your not sure double check some places want this stuff in way ahead of time.

its a shame you don't live near by cause we could all come over and help you out.

Hi Klue,

Bear with me here, I'm a complete newbie when it comes to machine quilting. All I've ever done really is SITD. Now, when you mention those three decorative stitches, where were you suggesting I use them?

The boots were fused with Pellon, probably a medium weight fusible. What do you mean about testing to see if the fusible "closes up" once it's stitched on? Should I quilt anymore on the boot, more than I already have? All I've done on the boots is go around each section of it with a straight stitch to secure it to the background after I fused it. I used a brown color on most of the boot and black on the sole and heel.

Thanks for the reminder to make some sample sandwiches, much appreciated.

Yes, I can do an echo stitch, did my first on a few months back - and that was my initial thought for what to do around the boots.

I got the quilt sandwich 3/4 of the way pin basted today before I ran out of pins. :( Will get some more on Tuesday.

Submission isn't until close to Sept. 7th, so I do have plenty of time, I hope.

Sometime tomorrow I'll be reformatting my computer, so I'll be offline for a couple of days. I'm on dial up, so getting back up to speed is painfully slow. I will check here tho before I start to see where we're at.

Thanks so much for your help! Much appreciated. :)

some fusible web doesn't close up when the needle penetrates it so you'll see tons of pin holes every where that you quilted but not to worry pellon is light weight enough that you can quilt thru it.

i would do echo stitching around the boots.

with the stitches make the test first and then you can pick out like 2 that you like for various sections of the quilt.

Thanks Klue,

Glad to know my fusible is okay to stitch on. I'm off to reformat my computer. See you afterwards, in a few days.

i'll be here when you get back :D

Hi Klue,

I'm back, the reformat went fine. It's getting up to speed with additional program installs, etc. that takes the time.

I expect I won't be working on the boot block until early next week now, but wanted to let you know I was here. Will touch base with you when I'm "back in the saddle" again. :lol:

excellent, i'm glad things are going well - you don't want to lose internet and the forum :shock:


just a heads up, there's a new Round Robin stating in Oct but you have to sign up by mid Aug.

you should check out the thread and if you're not drowning in projects you might want to join.

you make a center block 24 inches or less and then we mail are block out to other people.

its 6 rounds so in each round someone else is working on your quilt and you're working on theirs.

this is my first time doing it and it sounds like so much fun.

i'm doing 2 centers one for international and one for US.

Hi Klue,

Thanks SO much for the kind invite to your upcoming Round Robin, but alas, I am literally drowning in a sea of must dos. In fact, I've already decided not to re-up for the new year of Moda U classes - just TOO much on my plate currently. Gee, wonder how THAT happened?!

quilters always seem to be drowning in projects in various states and forget about the list of quilts we'd like to make one day.

I'm guessing that might have something to do with us being such a kind hearted bunch of folks, always willing to do something for someone else. :)